Shades of Conversation
by Kayasuri-n
Summary: Four times Mewtwo and Sabrina talked, and one time they didn't. Set after Shades of Violet. COMPLETE


**First Conversation**

It was raining worse than the weather report had called for, but Sabrina went out anyways. Lance knew who she was meeting, where she was meeting him, and even roughly what they'd be talking about. He _didn't_ know that 'Matthew' was really Mewtwo, a psychic feline instead of a young, human man.

That was fine. Her cousin didn't need to know everything, and besides. Surprises were what kept a person young.

The hotel concierge gave her an odd look as she sauntered past him, but he probably didn't see too many women heading out into pouring rain while still wearing a formal kimono, complete with white cherry blossoms on a dark violet obi.

Her telekinesis was just strong enough to put up an 'umbrella', a spot just above her head that kept the rain off. She hiked up her skirts to keep them out of the puddles, which revealed her more modern hiking boots.

Ever since that visit to the Northern Pokemon refuge, she'd been sold on the boots. Heels were for psychos.

Goldenrod City had a downtown that was almost as impressive as her hometown. On an ordinary night, there would be swarms of people going to and fro, talking loudly to be heard over one another, doing their best to ignore the homeless people who were still panhandling late at night.

However, with the rain, the sidewalk was practically deserted. The streets, not so much. Cars rushed past, sending sprays of water in every direction. Sabrina's kimono would have otherwise been ruined by the oil-and-water mixture from hell, except for, of course, her telekinesis. It was almost easier to create a sphere of protection around her entire body as 'hold' an 'umbrella' over her head.

Almost. She was feeling the strain by the time she turned down the right alley.

"Have you ever considered visiting me at my home?" she asked.

The figure at the end of the alley glowered at her. _"The last time I did that, your students tried scratching behind my ears."_

And since Mewtwo towered over everyone, except Little Jamie, who had hit a growth spurt the year before and had yet to get a new nickname, the children had had a difficult time of it.

"They know how to behave now," she said.

_"The individual is still following me."_

"Way to change the subject." She moved closer, and looked her fellow psychic up and down. "Why a cloak?"

Mewtwo shrugged, and eyed her kimono in return. _"It gets cold in winter. Cherry blossoms?"_

Sabrina shrugged. "Fancy dinner to celebrate the latest whatever it was," she said. "Formality was a must, and Jamie picked it out." Probably, she admitted, because it showed the least amount of skin. From anyone else, she would have found such a gesture irritating at the least, but from her husband, she had to admit that his awkward attempts at possessiveness made her heart go gooey almost as much as his absentminded tendencies.

_"It looks well on you,"_ he offered.

She much preferred pants, but she took the compliment in the spirit it was offered- well meaning. "Thank you. If I take care of your stalker, would you reconsider my offer?"

Mewtwo drew himself up to his impressive height, scowled as though he were going to deliver an edict from a pissed off god- and then paused. _"Which offer?"_ he asked, question layered with suspicion and well hidden dread.

Sabrina did her best to look innocent. "I'll just remind you that it was Luna and Adelaide who asked you for a threesome."

Predictably, Mewtwo looked ill. Well, he'd been sheltered most of his life, and Luna and Adelaide were- interesting- people.

"Or did you mean my offer of a teaching position, room of your own, and the authority to give students detention if they try to see if you purr like every other feline in existence?"

The sullen glare he directed her way was much more impressive than his initial 'I shall smite you' expression, no doubt thanks to all the teenagers she was exposed to. Sullen glares were harder to pull off properly, by far. _"I've thought about __**your**__ offer, and once again, no. I will not teach at your school."_

"And the threesome?"

In answer, he hissed. She decided to take his rare, verbal rebuke as the final word on _that_ idea.

"Fine, fine," she said, and patted the air in a vague, soothing gesture. "I'll still take care of your stalker. Where is he?"

_"A mile away at the moment, though approaching."_

"Does he still have those dark types?" she asked, looking up at the rooftops.

_"He does,"_ Mewtwo said. The bipedal feline took her hand. _"You will be dryer on top of the Cantilever building."_

With that as a warning, he teleported to the roof in question, dragging her along for the ride. The Cantilever building roof did indeed seem dryer; there were covered structures she suspected contained valuable equipment for running the building, like the air conditioning. There was also good drainage, which meant she didn't have to hold her kimono up out of any puddles.

"So," she said, moving over to one of the sheltering structures. "What's the plan?"

Mewtwo shrugged, and pulled his cloak a bit tighter around his shoulders. Sabrina made a mental note to send Joyce out after the feline on regular intervals, with food. It was early fall, and not nearly cold enough for a jacket even at night. Clearly he hadn't been eating enough. _"The dark types always attack me first,"_ he said. _"Never more than five, but never less than three. I am generally too distracted to do anything to him, though it is easy enough to get away."_

Which just meant he'd managed to keep pulling surprises out from his non-existent sleeves. "Well, if he's anywhere in the vicinity, I'll be able to catch him," she said.

_"I was hoping you would say that."_

Someone had learnt conversational skills in the past six months. Sabrina smiled.

The wait for the hunter took less time than she would have expected, but what did she know? Mewtwo played the part of bait beautifully, huddling in his own patch of shelter, looking out over the city in _exactly_ the direction the hunter didn't take.

Sabrina narrowed her eyes at the human who crept across the roof. It was difficult to see him; clearly, this was a professional. No black on black for _this_ man, no, instead it was dark gray mixed with dark blue and dark purple. It served to blur the man's shape, kept him from appearing as a silhouette.

She considered letting the man release his pokemon, but realized a second later that he'd already done so. There was an umbreon, a houndoom, and a murkrow, all practically invisible in the darkness.

Mewtwo had seen the pokemon, and moved to keep his back to the wooden structure, even as he glanced over in Sabrina's direction.

This was why she had told him to call on her anytime. He was powerful, to be certain, but as yet he did not have experience in unfair fights. Well, not when the fights were weighed against him.

Sabrina sighed, theatrically loud, and sauntered out into view. "Hello," she said, and grabbed Mewtwo's hunter before the man could move. She smiled, easily overwhelming the man's mental shields.

"So, Melchior, are you going to call off your pokemon now? Or do I have to do something painful?"

Melchior swallowed, and proceeded to return the pokemon to their pokeballs.

Mewtwo glowered, Sabrina smiled, and Melchior fainted.

"I didn't do that," she said.

Mewtwo just sighed.

**Second Conversation**

"Sabrina, the heater's out over at the school," Jamie called up the stairs. "I'll be a few hours."

She replied with her wordless assent, and continued her work on the computer. Her investigation, such as it was, into Melchior- and exactly _how_ an _assassin_, of all things, couldn't remember a single damn thing after she'd caught him- wasn't going well. Her favorite police officers had found a prior arrest warrant, but that was the limit.

Melchior was currently spending his days finger painting and reading children's story books in a mental hospital, while medically trained psychics tried to restore his memory.

The assassin's capture had been roughly five months ago, perhaps a little longer now that she thought about it, and things had settled down. Mewtwo reported that there seemed to be no more hunters, and had contacted her telepathically twice after their last meeting.

She was worried about him, something she would only ever admit to her husband.

She finally left off her rather pathetic attempts at hacking into the federal database. She could always harass Lance into looking into Melchior for her. It was time to work on the midterm reports on the students, anyways. Parents, those who were still involved in their children's lives, liked being updated.

The teachers took care of most of the work, but Sabrina had to review everything before anything could be sent out. She was, after all, the headmistress.

Headmistress. That was such a fun word.

Ten and a half reports later, she heard a thump. She paid it no mind- it could have been any number of things, either one of her pokemon, her husband, or one of the children trying to move something he couldn't see- and continued reading.

Then there was a second thump, and a crash. She pushed away from her desk and lunged for the door in an uncoordinated flailing of limbs in seconds.

She nearly broke her neck in her mad dash down the stairs.

From long experience, she knew the crash was that of glass, that it was not a window but instead an object, and after that all she had to look for was the sprawled form on the floor and shards of crystal vase in the living room.

"Oh, Mewtwo," she said, and sighed. Well, it looked like she'd been right to worry.

Two hours and a great deal of effort later, she'd managed to get the psychic up into one of the guest rooms, tucked under five blankets, and even managed to pour two bowls of soup down his stubborn throat.

_"You will let me leave now."_

"I think the fever's making you delusional. Try to move, I dare you."

Mewtwo glowered, but stayed put. Smart boy. Sabrina smiled, and continued tidying. Guest rooms were all well and good, until they were used for storage. Then, of course, you needed them suddenly and urgently and were putting people up in rooms filled with dust, cobwebs, and boxes tilting dangerously towards the bed.

And drywall. Don't forget the drywall.

Mewtwo's breathing was easier now that he was warm, at least.

"How did you survive before meeting me?" Sabrina asked.

Mewtwo actually looked sheepish. _"Mew kept an eye on me. After he left, however..."_

"Your shields fell, humans flock to all the warm places in winter, and you hibernated?" she guessed.

_"I stayed in a cave on New Island, but humans began development last year. I actually hadn't thought winter would be this bad."_ He looked down at the bedspread in what she suspected was bemusement.

"Welcome to the northern hemisphere," Sabrina said. "Do you have a problem with bowling balls?"

Mewtwo looked up at her, completely and utterly baffled. _"With what?"_

Sabrina pointed at the five boxes- fortunately not piled one on top of the other- labeled 'bowling balls'. "I'd rather not move them."

_"I,_" he said, _"am going to sleep."_

**Third Conversation**

_"Congratulations."_

"What?"

_"I didn't think you were the type, though."_

"What are you talking about?"

_"But so long as you're happy."_

"Are you going to make sense sometime this century?"

_"National Enquirer, page twenty-seven."_

Sabrina frowned, grabbed the tabloid from Bruno, and flipped to page twenty-seven. She ignored the other League members, and instead began muttering aloud about just what she'd do to tabloid writers that kept poking into her private life.

**Fourth Conversation**

Sabrina raised one hand, and looked solemnly at Mewtwo. "Feel the force, Luke," she droned.

_"What?"_ the feline immediately looked over at Jamie, who just shrugged and pointed at the half empty bottle of wine.

"Sabrina's a lightweight."

Mewtwo looked from trainer to janitor. _"Did I come at a bad time?"_

"It's summer!" Sabrina lunged, and utterly missed Mewtwo by a good two feet. She giggled against the floor tile.

"It's not so bad," Jamie assured the feline. "The kids've gone camping, so she's celebrating."

Mewtwo picked up the wine bottle. _"Your wife is a cheap date."_

"I know."

"Hey, Luke! Feel the damn force already!"

_"I'm not Luke..."_

"Darth Vader?"

_"Jamie, would you mind terribly if I left?"_

"Take me with you? She's on a Star Wars kick."

"Han, why do you want to run off with Vader? Wait... Does that make you my father?"

_"You are very drunk and I'm leaving now."_

"Oh." Sabrina began humming 'Darth Vader's March', incredibly off tune, and never noticed when both men left.

**Fifth Conversation**

His first thought upon arrival was that he shouldn't have been there.

Julian had contacted him; Julian was the strongest telepath, next to Sabrina, and one of the children who had been introduced to Sabrina's pokemon friend. Mewtwo had been in Hoenn; that hadn't mattered to the boy.

_"Jamie's dead,"_ Julian had whispered, mind-voice thick with sorrow. _"It was a hit and run- the police haven't caught the guy yet. The funeral's on Friday. Will you come?"_

Not to the funeral, no, but to the wake... He stood on the lawn, staring at the ivy covered building that by rights belonged to a gardener, not to the mistress of the manor. He could see a crowd of people through the windows, but it was all very quiet, as proper for a wake.

He took several steps closer, and stopped. He had met Jamie a few times, but certainly not enough... Sabrina was his teacher, or had been, but there was no such relationship to the deceased.

They had gone to the library together, once, when Sabrina had celebrated the student's annual trip to summer camp by getting drunk and going on a Star Wars kick.

Jamie had then proceeded to explain just what Star Wars was, and what the force was.

That was it. There had been no further interaction, no conversations- nothing.

Another step towards the house, but Mewtwo could not prod himself any closer.

He'd teleported around the back of the building, for secrecy, though why he bothered _here_, of all places...

The kitchen door opened, and Sabrina stumbled out.

She was black and white; the black of hair and clothes, the white of tear-streaked skin. Her eyes looked like two holes burnt in her head.

She looked up from the ground, and saw him before he could teleport away.

_"I'm sorry,"_ he whispered.

Sabrina sobbed one, aloud, and then stumbled over to his side. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders, and stood with her while she cried.

He didn't know what to say, but it seemed words were not necessary.

**End Notes**

_So I was going over my old stories, and found this one called 'Shades of Violet'. It was finished in 2010, and when I re-read it, I saw that I'd promised a sequel._

_My brain started spinning, and I immediately shot to Sabrina drunk off her ass going on about Star Wars (which yes, exists in the Pokemon world as a series of movies, because I'm currently on a Star Wars kick myself- besides, force, psychic powers? Am I the only one who noticed a similarity there?) and Mewtwo being freaked out._

_Then I had other scenes, and I decided to string them together._

_There will be a sequel. I swear, there will be a sequel. Though, if and when it gets written, I have no idea._

_Vampires may or may not be involved. Giovanni may or may not be involved. Sabrina may or may not throw someone out the window._

_If it gets written sometime before the end of the century, it'll be called 'Shades of Darkness.'_


End file.
